The calendar switches to the next day, and Michael directs the cameras to film Mal, Kevin, and Glyn dismantling the equipment on the Twickenham soundstage. Before everything is taken apart, however, Paul uses the room to record a demo of “Oh! Darling” at the piano, with extra echo.
We see George for the first time in five days, shown walking into Twickenham to meet Glyn so they can go check out the new studio together. There, we are told, “they are not happy with what they find.” The equipment Magic Alex has installed falls far short of his promise of a state-of-the-art 72-track recording desk, producing “an unacceptable level of distortion and hiss.” Glyn reaches out to George Martin, who assembles a team from the EMI studio on Abbey Road to bring in some working equipment that will be combined with, once again, George Harrison’s eight-track machine. They work through the weekend, but the setup is still not ready on Monday January 20, when the band comes in to record, so they choose to rehearse instead.
No footage is captured of the band at work inside the building on this date, but we do see each of the boys arriving outside; Ringo is chauffeured, as are John & Yoko, George drives himself, and Paul walks up the street, possibly having taken the tube. Tony interviews two of the “Apple scruffs,” young women who kept vigil outside the building, as well as at the Abbey Road studio and Paul’s house nearby plus, lately, Twickenham, in hopes of getting a glimpse of their idols. (George coined the phrase, and would write an affectionate song about them the following year.)
Tony asks about their motivation for standing in wait, as well as their opinions of John and Yoko and the rumors of the band splitting. They’re not concerned about either, since they’re mostly there to see Paul, but they would love to see the band play a live show.
By the way, thank you for this wonderful commentary!
ReplyDeleteAs this went along, while there certainly were tensions, the real animosity didn't really start until post-"Abbey Road", when John left, Klein moved in over Paul's objections and they were still trying to figure out what to do with this project. All that, apparently rebounded backwards.